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Vernice Bryan, who became a Realtor in 1973 and mentored generations of men and women, died April 25 at 84

Longtime Nashville Realtor Vernice Bryan, center, inspired many in the industry. She is pictured here with her son Richard Bryan, front row from left, daughter Kathleen Thompson and Monica Baker; and back row, from left, Chole Hernandez, Stephanie Hollis, Rachel Cothern and Gloria Riches.(Photo: Submitted)

Vernice Bryan had been a Realtor for only a brief time in the 1970s when interest rates on mortgages soared past 20 percent. To help clients get the homes their families needed — and to make a living — she pioneered the use of lease-purchase agreements that made homeownership affordable.

“She had to be very creative to sell houses,” said her son, Richard Bryan.

It was, he said, just one example of how she knocked down obstacles during a career in real estate that began in 1973, a time when few careers were open to women other than nursing and teaching and women had difficulty getting credit without a man’s signature. Nearly all of her fellow Realtors were men.

By the time of her death on April 25 at age 84, Bryan had long been recognized as one of Nashville’s most successful Realtors and had mentored generations of women, who today make up about two-thirds of the real estate workforce nationally. Women, many of them single home buyers, are a significant force in Nashville’s housing market.

Richard Bryan was part of his mother Vernice Bryan’s team at Fridrich & Clark.(Photo: Submitted)

Bryan embraced change

Young Realtors, both women and men, regularly sought Bryan’s advice.

“People came to mom out of respect,” said Kathleen Bryan Thompson, who along with Richard Bryan was part of their mother’s team at Fridrich & Clark, the real estate firm Vernice Bryan joined in 1990 after beginning her career at Dobson & Johnson. For many years Dobson & Johnson was Nashville’s largest real estate brokerage.

“I think any woman has benefited from Vernice’s example. We all raise each other up to be the best version of ourselves, and Vernice set the bar really high. She was a strong, driven person,” said Wilson.

During Bryan’s career, the ways people buy and sell houses changed and changed again. Where once Realtors would hand-write an offer and drive it across town to the seller’s agent, today they email or text. Instead of in-person document signings, electronic signatures are used.

Vernice Bryan, right, joined close friend Gloria Riches in the real estate field in the early 1970s.(Photo: Submitted)

'She made everybody better'

The places people buy homes also changed during Bryan’s career.

“Williamson County was all farms” in 1973, said Wilson. “Concord Road and Franklin were all farms.”

Bryan’s close friend Gloria Riches, who became a Realtor while Bryan was still pursuing a teaching career, said “everything changed” in the Nashville region.

In 1973, master-planned neighborhoods like Westhaven in Franklin, Durham Farms in Hendersonville and StoneBridge in Lebanon had not been imagined. Other neighborhoods that are popular today, such as Germantown, the Nations and East Nashville, had yet to see their renaissance.

“Woodbine has really grown. East Nashville is the ‘it’ place,” said Riches. “We knew every street in Nashville. Now when I go downtown, I have to look at street signs.”

Long before Nissan and General Motors opened in Smyrna and Spring Hill, Bryan was actively selling homes throughout the region. At the time, many Realtors specialized in a particular part of town, said Richard Courtney, a Realtor at Fridrich & Clark and a friend of the family.

“Genesco and Aladdin were the big ones (manufacturers),” he said. “People didn’t realize they could transcend certain borders. She was everywhere.”

Bryan had a way of being kind but straightforward with those who sought her advice, said Courtney.